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Pius XII and the Second World War: According to the Archives of the Vatican

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Pierre Blet's work is a major historical work that brings much needed balance to our perspective of Pope Pius XII's activities during World War II. Although considerably shorter than Cornwell's book, this brevity results from allowing the facts speak for themselves -- Cornwell's overwrought analysis of what the "facts mean" is avoided. This work relies extensively on the Vatican's historical records from this troubled period, and thus avoids the assumptions and inferences that mar other,less balanced works on this subject. Blet makes it abundantly clear that Pius XII was an informed and eloquent foe of Nazism, and directed Church activity in furtherance of saving innocent Jewish lives from what he deemed to be the unmitigated evil of Nazism. Moreover, Blet demonstrates that Puis XII's careful public statements denouncing anti-Semitism resulted not from cowardice, but from a firm belief that more pointed statements from him possessed the capacity to further inflame Nazi violence against Jews. Moreover, from Blet's work, it is clear that, in the context of that time, Hitler clearly understood that Pius XII's statements were directed at him and his government, and that he considered Pius XII an outspoken foe of the Nazi movement. After Blet's work, hopefully scholarship on this subject will focus on whether Pius's strategies were best under the circumstances, and not whether Pius was personally indifferent to the plight of the Jews. This work makes it clear that Pius XII was deeply affected by the plight of the Jews, and believed he was acting prudently in their defense. Perhaps that point may be debated, but the debate over Pius's prudence, Blet makes clear, should exclude any insinuation that Pius did not care. In the end, the Catholic Church acted to save 860,000 Jewish lives from the clutches of Hitler, whose aggressive and frightful reign was ended only by the combined and sustained sacrifices of the world's greatest military powers. Blet makes you wonder how much blame can attach, under the circumstances, to the leader of an unarmed pacifist state surrounded by hostile Fascist powers.

This is a sober, well-documented study of the efforts of Pius XII to save thousands of Jewish lives. At last we have primary sources: diplomatic cables, autograph letters, which show Pius's efforts to save innocent lives from the horrors of Nazism. This humanitarian and diplomatic crusade merits wider knowledge. A true work of scholarship.

What the Vatican Archives Really Say About Pope Pius XII

This is adapted from my review published in the New Oxford Review (February 2000).

The author working with three other Jesuit scholars conducted research in the Vatican archives and helped produce 11 volumes of documents with the French title, Actes et documents du Saint Siege relatifs a la Seconde Guerre Mondiale (Actes). In the introduction to his book, Father Blet observes that these 11 volumes have often "escaped the attention of many who speak and write about the Holy See during the war." Indeed, of 677 citations in John Cornwell's Hitler's Pope, only 21 cite the Actes. Blet's near-exclusive use of primary sources is very impressive, and it gives his arguments substantial credibility. The Actes along with published collections of diplomatic documents from the United States, Great Britain, Germany, and Italy provide a clear and balanced portrait of Pope Pius XII during World War II. Blet shows that the Vatican consistently opposed the persecutions and deportations of Jews in many Nazi-occupied and Axis countries. In Slovakia, which was headed by an anti-Semitic Catholic priest, the Vatican officially protested the anti-Jewish laws and deportations. Vatican Secretary of State Luigi Cardinal Maglione frequently instructed the Vatican's diplomatic representatives in Slovakia, Romania, Croatia, Italy, and even Germany to intervene on behalf of endangered Jews. On October 30, 1941, Cardinal Maglione encouraged the papal nuncio in France to intervene with the Vichy regime in order to soften the application of the anti-Semitic laws. The nuncio's protest against the deportations of French Jews in August 1942 received international attention. Blet also refutes the myth that the Vatican did nothing to stop the arrests of Roman Jews in October 1943. As soon as Pius XII heard of the arrests, he had Cardinal Maglione make a strong protest with the German Ambassador. The Pope also ordered Bishop Alois Hudal, the rector of the German Catholic Church in Rome, to protest the arrests with the German Military Governor of Rome. Along with these protests, thousands of Jews found shelter in Catholic convents, monasteries, and the Vatican itself. In response to the deportations of Hungarian Jews in June 1944, the Pope personally addressed an open telegram to Hungarian Regent Nicholas Horthy, and urged him to spare "so many unfortunate people" from "further afflictions and sorrows." The Holy Father's intervention along with those of the Red Cross, the King of Sweden, and President Franklin Roosevelt brought a temporary halt to the deportations. When the deportations resumed in October, the papal nuncio in Hungary, acting on orders from Rome, continued to make protests.(Unfortunately, Blet omits other Vatican interventions on behalf of Jews in Bulgaria, Albania, Greece, Poland, Lithuania, and even Japan.) Important Jewish leaders and organizations such as Chief Rabbi Miroslav Freiberger of Zagreb, Croatia, Chief Rabbi Isaac Herzog of Jerusalem, Chief Rabbi Alexander Shafran of Bucharest Romania, Chaim Barlas of the Jewish Agency, the World Jewish Congress, and the American Jewish Committee often expressed their gratitude to Pius XII. If the Pope did little or nothing to help the Jews and sympathized with the Nazis, then why did so many Jews in nearly every part of the world praise him on so many occasions? Along with helping Jews, the Vatican assisted prisoners of war and other civilians. In 1941 and 1942, the Vatican helped alleviate the famine in Greece during the Nazi occupation. As Father Blet writes, "The very mass of documents by itself stands as an eloquent testimony of the intensity of the care that the pope showed on behalf of the human problems that the war brought throughout the world." As for which side the Pope favored, Blet notes that in the early months of 1940, the Pope acted as an intermediary between a group of German generals who wanted to overthrow Adolf Hitler and the British government. Unfortunately, the conspiracy never went forward. Vatican critics such as Saul Friedlander and Guenther Lewy often explain the Pope's "silence" by suggesting that he saw the Nazis as a "bulwark" against the Soviet Union. In fact, Pius XII indirectly assisted the Soviet Union during the war. In response to diplomatic appeals made by President Franklin Roosevelt in the fall of 1941, Pius XII agreed that American Catholics could support the extension of the Lend-Lease program to the Soviets. While the Vatican always condemned Communism, the Pope had nothing but paternal sentiments for the Russian people. Along these lines, the extension of Lend-Lease to the Soviets could be morally justified because it helped the Russian people, who were the innocent victims of Nazi aggression. The Pope also rebuffed Fascist demands to publicly bless the invasion of the Soviet Union. Instead of embracing the Nazis, Pius XII strongly opposed their persecution of his Church in Germany and the occupied countries. In January 1940, he ordered Vatican Radio to broadcast Polish Cardinal August Hlond's reports on the persecution of the Catholic Church in Poland. These reports gave independent confirmation to media reports about Nazi atrocities, which were previously dismissed as Allied propaganda. Blet neglects to mention that these broadcasts also described atrocities against Jews. Unlike many historians and journalists, Blet discusses what Pius XII actually said in public, and how his statements were greeted by both sides. Throughout the war, the Pope insisted that an important condition for a "just and honorable peace " was the protection of all "ethnic minorities." In speech after speech, he also warned the occupying powers that they would face God's wrath if they failed to treat all civilians with justice, charity, and humanity. In his 1942 Christmas message, Pope Pius XII spoke of the "hundreds of thousands of people who, without any fault of their own and sometimes because of their nationality or race alone, have been doomed to death or to progressive extermination." Unlike most critics, who dismiss these words as vague, the Reich Central Security Office (R.H.S.A.) concluded that the Pope "virtually accuses the German people of injustice toward the Jews. . ." On June 2, 1943, Pius XII once again spoke of persons "because of their nationality or their race . . . destined, even without fault on their part, to the threat of extermination." Blet successfully demolishes the allegations against Pope Pius XII, showing that he did a lot to help the Jews, did speak out and opposed the Nazis in every possible way. At a time when attempts to derail Pope's forthcoming beatification are intensifying, both Catholics and non-Catholics can finally educate themselves about this controversy by consulting Father Blet's extraordinary book. When asked about his predecessor in 1998, Pope John Paul II referred reporters to Father Blet's work.

After reading the speculative and often fanciful calumnies of "Hitler's Pope" it is natural for a reader to hope that this work will provide a sweeping response. It does not.

This book is factual -- but not analytical, historical, or contextual. As a result, a reader bogs down in detail. The book does a good job of showing the tiny details that made up the Vatican's work against Hitler and for peace. The book lacks a critical overview.

Given that it is clear and demonstrable that the Vatican was for peace in World War II, the next question is one of effectiveness. Pius was a diplomat. This book does not explore whether a diplomat was the proper and best Church leader during this troubled time.

It is sad that there is any need for this debate, over whether the Vatican helped Jews "to the best of it's ability". The answer is of course, yes and no! No human organization is perfect.

A better question is, did Pius do his best as a man -- and the answer is yes, as this book proves -- and did he do his best as a Pope -- and the answer is no, because his skills and talents were not those of a moral leader, or a symbolically attuned leader. When the Church needed a John Paul II, they instead had a quiet force for good. Sometimes that is enough; here it might have been, barely, for many hundreds of thousands saved by the Church. But it was not enough for millions of others, who were not saved, and probably could not have been short of American armored divisions. That is an unsatisfying answer, but a true one.

This book builds details, in layers, like a bird building a nest. It is a frustrating book to read. The facts accrete, and in the end one is left seeing the disgusting and weak job of character assassination done in "Hitler's Pope". But the reader also wishes for a better story telling style. The reader also wishes for more cogently stated ammunition against the Pope haters, such as they are.

The real word on the Pope, World War II, and the moral obligations of the Papacy -- that story has yet to be told, as a story. This book will be a good resource to some future writer who wants honesty, facts, and can use them to tell the story.

After so much bashing of the Pope's reaction/response/responsibility for the holocaust, most of it simply a front for anti-Catholic Romaphobia, this book is a welcome find. The text is based upon the Vatican archives, by someone who has spent many years working with the originals, of the role of the Pope in the time of the War, collected and written in response to Rolph Hochhuth's 1963 antipapal claims that he ignored the plight of the Jews.

The evidence demonstrates that Pope Pius did a great deal to influence European governments behind the scenes, and also attempted to rescue large numbers of Jews in Europe, but that his efforts went largely ignored or simply drowned in a sea of diplomatic storms. Hardly an acquiescence and clearly not a co-conspirator.

This is a good book to read, and presents the reader with data from which to accurately judge Pope Pius XII--prudent, wanting to be sure he did more good than harm, but with 20-20 hindsight, probably too cautious. But that he was not striving for the good of as many as possible is beyond dispute. A carefully documented work.

The book provides exhaustive documentation on the diplomatic work of Pius XII to save persecuted Jews and Christians during World War II. It especially shows how the nuncios in France, Hungary, and Turkey formed diplomatic coalitions to rescue thousands of persecuted Jews. Pius's diplomatic caution will not suit everyone, but it is indisputable that he saved thousands of Jewish lives by this means. This is a story of heroic charity with a good bit of cloak-and-dagger thrown in.

Meticulous presentation of the thousands of efforts undertaken by Pius XII to save the lives of Jews and Christians during World War II. Rather than engaging in armchair psychology (a la Cornwell), Blet overwhelms the reader with bald evidence of the Pope's exhastive efforts to help the persecuted. The work should lay to the rest the calumny concerning Pope Pius XII in World War II, but this calumny never had anything to do with the facts.

Father Pierre Blet, S.J. wrote this book, PIUS XII and the SECOND WORLD WAR: ACCORDING to the ARCHIVES of the VATICAN which was published in 1997 and translated into English in 1999. This book was based on careful historical research of Vatican Documents and reflected 12 volumes that were carefully examined between 1965-1981. While more documents have been examined since 1981, the book is important in that massaive bona fide documents have undermined Catholic bashers and anti-Catholic hysterics who have not one shred of bona fide of actual sources for their false claims.

Father F. Stransky,a Paulist Catholic priest, began this book with a brief summary of the men involved in scholarship and the attempts to smear Pope Pius XII. He carefully explained that Pope Pius XII had to be very careful re diplomacy and used secret messages and encrypted notes to communicate with priests, bishops, nuns, sisters, etc. Pope Pius XII was an unallyed hero during the 1940s which the book clearly proved. Pope Pius XII probably did more to rescue refugees including Jews at great personal risk than anyone else. Yet, as the historian Christopher Browning wrote, "The Holocaust is a story of many victims and not too many heroes. I think we are naive if we think that one more hero could have stopped it" (p.XV).

The introduction classified the documents into five catagories (Pope Pius XII's public speeches,Pope Pius XII's correpsondence with ecclesiastical and civil authorities, Vatican notes and hand written communications for proposals to help rescue innocent victims,correspondence with Vatican nuncios, and representatives accredited by the Vatican). This was followed by a careful description of the historiography of examining the actual sources.

The next section of the book dealt with Pope Pius XII strenuous attempts to prevent the start of W.W. II. Many of Pope Pius XII's warnings came true, and he knew what was probably going to happen. Early in the war Pope Pius XII had terrible problems trying to save the Catholic Church in Poland which both the German and Soviet authorities were trying to destroy. Catholic representatives had to be careful to avoid arrest and execution and exposing those whom they were desparately trying to help.

As Father Blet noted, once W.W. II started Pope Pius XII worked tirelessly to keep the Italians out of the war but to no avail. Again, Father Blet noted Pope Pius XII's uncanny ability to predict what would happen if the Italians entered the war. Pope Pius XII knew that Catholics both in Italy and other areas of Europe would be persecuted due to their loyalty to Catholicism.

Father Blet's sections of the book dealing with the status of the Catholic Church in Germany was rich in detail and research. In 1937, Pope Pius XII's predessor Pope Pius XI, issued the document titled MIT BRTENNENDER SORGE (March 19, 1937)which condemned German policy toward "non-Aryans." Readers should note that Eugenio Pacelli, the future Pope Pius XII, helped craft this document. This was followed by persecution of the Catholic Church which included the stoppage, or attempted stoppage of Papal commnications to German Catholics. Catholic publishers, schools, organizations, etc. were closed, and many arrests plus severe penalties followed. Once Pope Pius XII was elected in 1939, he knew what Catholics faced both in Germany and most of the rest of Europe.

These persecutions obviously occured in Poland. Catholic bishops and laity were often arrested by either German or Soviet authorities never to be heard from again. Pope Pius XII had continued disputes over the appointment of bishops. He absolutely refused to accept any German or Soviet nominee for Catholic Church positions as Pope Pius XII that such appointees could never be loyal to Catholicism or the Vatican. In fact, many Catholic priests and religious were arrested and sent to concentration camps as early as 1940.

The Catholic priests and religious in the Low Countries (Belgium, Luxembourg, and the Netherlands) had to seek refuge in the Vatican or neutral countries (neutrals were rare)to avoid arrest and execution. Pope Pius XII raised public protest in his Christmas Message of 1940, his Easter Message of 1941, plus his Pentacost Message also in 1941. Such messages were often followed by increased persecution against Catholics in German occupied Europe. This was obviously a time when they were displaced refugees and lost persons. Yet, Pope Pius XII arranged for Vatican officials to try to locate these people and inform family members of the refugees' status. If displaced men, women, and children were located, Pope Pius XII and his Vatican staff did all they could to send food, medicine, correspondence, etc. to these people. As an aside, a Protestant family from Kansas sent a large donation and sincere thanks for locating and helping their son.

Later sections of the book dealt with Pope Pius XII's and Catholics' heroic efforts to help refugees including Jewish people in Eastern Europe including Croatia, Romania, Slovakia,etc. Readers must realize that these areas were in complete chaos as German and Soviet armies ravaged these areas with war and subsepuent secret police brutality. Pope Pius XII threatened any Catholic priest or religious with exommunication if they aided and abetted in persecution of Jews or other "non-Aryans."

Pope Pius XII had his Cardinals and Bishops issue false baptismal certificates and attempted to get visas for refugees to relocate in other parts of the world out of harm's way. These efforts were exhaustive as verified by Angelo Roncalli-the future Pope John XXIII. There was not any effort that Pope Pius XII and his advisors plus Catholic laity did not try to alleviate the suffering and death among innocent victims including Jewish refugees.

The last sections of the book dealt with the testimonies of those who offered grateful thanks and praise to Pope Pius XII including Jewish dignataries such as Isreal Zolli who was the Chief Rabbi of Rome and later converted to Catholicism. Rabbi Herzog, the subsequent Chief Rabbi of Rome, also offered high praise. Many Eastern European rabbis also offered sincere gratitude and praise to Pope Pius XII. They knew what Pope Pius XII did to help them and other Jewish people. Readers may be interested in the fact that in 1955, the Israeli Philharmonic Orchestra offered a concert at the Vatican to honor Pope Pius XII.

Father Blet did a good job. Readers should follow this book by the book titled POPE PIUS XII AND WORLD WAR II-THE DOCUEMENTED TRUTH. This book was edited by Gary Krupp who is Jewish and has numerous documents and sources which vindicate Pope Pius XII. Gery Krupp and his editors have digitized approximately 65% of the documents re the Papacy of Pope Pius XII and hope to have 99% of these documents in the near future. There IS NOT ONE SHRED OF EVIDENCE that Pope Pius XII was sympathic to the Hitler regime-not one. Sister Marchione has written excellent well documented books re Pope Pius XII. Ronald Rychek has written two excellent books which refute the nonsensical smears against Pope Pius XII.

James E. Egolf
July 4, 2010

This book presents the facts - and lots of them - straight from the Vatican Archives as it examines the role of Pius XII and the Vatican during World War II. What emerges is a picture that is wholly at odds with what the popular myths that have been foisted upon us by Catholic-bashers operating under a pretense of objectivity and phony moral outrage. Pius XII is shown to be the hero he truly was - a holy man of God, doing the best that could be expected incredibly difficult circumstances.